November 3, 2005
SELINSGROVE, (Pa.) – Acclaimed novelist and short story writer Jill McCorkle will present a free, public reading of her work at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, in Isaacs Auditorium of Seibert Hall. Books will be available for purchase and signing following the reading.
McCorkle’s reading is part of the 2005-2006 Visiting Writers Series, sponsored by The Writers Institute. The third of six writers to visit Susquehanna University this year, McCorkle will be on campus November 7 to 11 visiting classrooms and meeting students as the year’s Visiting Writer in Residence.
McCorkle is the author of five novels and three collections of short stories, most notably a novel titled The Cheer Leader and the short story collection Creatures of Habit. In Creatures of Habit, McCorkle tells stories about animals to show the connections that humans have with animals, and the commonalities that they share.
“I didn’t begin this collection with the idea of all the animal connections; it evolved as I was writing,” McCorkle said. “As a writer I realize that it’s so valuable for me to take notes of little things I notice in life along the way.”
Publishers Weekly says, “McCorkle’s two chief strengths are her earthiness and her command of narrative voices. The stories (in Creatures of Habit) are at once intricate and compulsively readable, redolent of the small failures and triumphs of human life.”
Kirkus Reviews described Creatures of Habit as “the work of an accomplished writer who’s continually refining her skills and expanding her range.”
McCorkle has been selected four times by The New York Times Book Review for its Notable Books of the Year list. She has received the New England Booksellers’ Association Award and the Jon Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature. In 1996, McCorkle was included in Granta Magazine’s celebration of Best of Young American Writers.
McCorkle has been widely published in various literary journals and commercial magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly, Cosmopolitan and Ladies Home Journal. Her work has also been distributed internationally to Britain, Sweden, France and Japan. She currently teaches at Harvard University and Bennington College, and is a frequent reviewer for The New York Times Book Review and has also reviewed for The Washington Post.
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Contact: Victoria Kidd
570-372-4119
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